The Front Mission series is primarily known for its renowned SRPG entries, but also has its fair share of action titles as well. For example Front Mission Online, Front Mission Alternative, and Front Mission: Gun Hazard were all received well. They manage to capture the soul of Front Mission, while also providing thoughtful action. But then SQEX had the idiotic idea of farming out this series' glorious name to a third rate USA studio. To cheaply and quickly produce another action title; Front Mission Evolved. To be blunt; Double Helix Games had no business getting anywhere near Front Mission. But I guess they were the lowest bidder.

Rather than make an action game that captures the heart of Front Mission, Double Helix Games were instead content to make a generic mecha third person shooter. While the action is serviceable and at times engaging, it never appropriates its series' namesake in any tangible way. Honestly Front Mission Evolved felt more like a spiritual successor to MechAssault than anything else. So if you enjoyed the brainless blasting of MechAssault, then you will likely enjoy Front Mission Evolved. But there are still plenty of other problems even if you take that approach to playing this game.

The developers clearly did not understand what makes Front Mission what it is. They totally screwed up the mech designing aspect first and foremost. The cutscenes are so terrible I started skipping them halfway through. The graphics are very sixth gen just running at a higher resolution. Game design is all over the place, generally bad, and always unbalanced. The less said about the on foot parts the better. Worst of all, on normal difficulty, Front Mission Evolved is pathetically easy (I beat the last boss on my first try). Front Mission Evolved is a workmanlike mech shooter; it is simply too generic and sloppy to deserve bearing the Front Mission name. Double Helix Games and SQEX should both be forever ashamed of themselves for tarnishing such a glorious franchise with this robo-turd. Front Mission Devolved is the accurate name.

Tetris Plus is a faithful and unique Tetris game. The game is diverted into two large modes, Classic and Puzzle Mode. Classic Mode is normal Tetris without any frills coming later on like saving pieces or even super quick turning.

The heart of the game is the Puzzle Mode. You have a little archeologist trying to get to the bottom of the screen and you have to clear a pathway of two blocks for him to make it. He always climbs when pieces are placed on top of him and he is known to not go where you want him to.

Puzzle Mode is just like a perfect puzzle game, where it is stupid simple at the beginning and then increasingly difficult. One or two of the 100 puzzles felt a little cheap, but none of them were too terrible. They were all doable and even the hard ones had a good sense of accomplishment afterwards.

With great music, good visuals and addictive gameplay, Tetris Plus is a rather enjoyable Tetris game. The Puzzle mode is a wonderful feature and it is an adequate Tetris game. The game runs for about $5, $15 if you want the Saturn version and that is an exact amount of the game. It is a great game at that price and comes highly recommended for anybody that loves Tetris or puzzle games.

Pikmin 1 didn't quite scratch my Pikmin itch as much as I wanted it to, so I sat down and played through Pikmin 3 between last night and today. The only thing I knew about this game going in is that I remembered hearing it was a little short. Compared to the dungeon crawling epic that is Pikmin 2, then yes, I suppose that's true, but I think this game was just as long as it needed to be. I collected all the fruit and it took me 36 days and about 18-ish real time hours.

This game controls totally left-handed with the Wii U tablet and with the right hand manning the stylus. Granted, plaything through the whole thing in one sitting did a bit of a number on my wrist, but I'm just gonna hope that feels better by morning XP. I'm not sure I like it better than the Gamecube controls, but I like it better than the Wiimote+numchuk controls. The only thing you can't do is direct your hoard in a direction like you can with the C-stick in the Gamecube games. Although you DO have a dodge roll you can get and activate with left and right on the D-pad which is pretty freaking sweet. Using the stylus to aim isn't an exact science, at least if you wanna play with the TV + tablet instead of just the tablet, but you get used to it pretty quick.

The graphics are BEAUTIFUL. This is one of my favorite looking games of last (this?) generation. All of the landscapes are beautifully detailed with tons of graphical detail and vibrant colors. The monsters look fantastic, and the really big ones are always a joy to even see just because of how oddball they are and fluidly they move. The level design is proper quality as well, as it always encourages you to inspect all of your surroundings to find dat fruit. Three main party members as well as a "Go To" feature on your map allows for some serious multi-tasking if you're up for it, and there are some decidedly more fiendishly hidden fruit that will require tactical use of all three members each wielding Pikmin of their own.

The combat is Pikmin as usual, more or less, but the world bosses are GREAT. One of my favorite parts of the game. This is the best the Pikmin themselves have ever been balanced, in my opinion. The two new types, rock and flying, replace the old types of purple and white, and have fantastic utility to both of them in that the flying can handle flying enemies easier, and rocks don't cling to things but do damage on impact as well as breaking enemy carapaces. Add in the exploration utility of things like the normal 3 (and yellows which are good at digging now and not nearly as useless as they used to be), and this is definitely one of the best designed games in the series.

Verdict: Highly recommended. A lot of care and detail went into this game, and it shows. It's a great adventure you can get through in a day or two, but it's a damn fun and memorable one. Definitely worth a try if you liked either of the other games even a little

I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me

What...you spent 18 hours straight playing Pikmin 3? I did get the game myself just recently and i probably will try to beat before the end of the year. I just have to get couple of more essential Wii U games out of the way first.

Xeogred wrote:I plan to give Ninja Gaiden NES another shot soon. I have admitted to not being a fan, but maybe the mood is perfect now. I'll check it out.

This is a weird game. It presents itself as a frustrating, overly-punishing game, and unlike Castlevania or Contra it doesn't seem to make any attempts to draw the player in when starting fresh.

However, persistence brings out the excellence in this game, and once familiarity is gained it really begins to shine, for me outclassing the other staple sidescrollers, as it offers a unique, sharp experience.

Xeogred wrote:I plan to give Ninja Gaiden NES another shot soon. I have admitted to not being a fan, but maybe the mood is perfect now. I'll check it out.

This is a weird game. It presents itself as a frustrating, overly-punishing game, and unlike Castlevania or Contra it doesn't seem to make any attempts to draw the player in when starting fresh.

However, persistence brings out the excellence in this game, and once familiarity is gained it really begins to shine, for me outclassing the other staple sidescrollers, as it offers a unique, sharp experience.

Definitely look forward to your thoughts on this one.

Loved it as a kid but could never get past the 3rd stage. Bought it on Wii U 2 years ago. Beat it in just over a hour with a few deaths. Last stage esp. There is a couple bosses later in the game that seemed hard at first but you can exploit them and make it easier. Still one of my favorite NES games.

Pikmin 1 didn't quite scratch my Pikmin itch as much as I wanted it to, so I sat down and played through Pikmin 3 between last night and today. The only thing I knew about this game going in is that I remembered hearing it was a little short. Compared to the dungeon crawling epic that is Pikmin 2, then yes, I suppose that's true, but I think this game was just as long as it needed to be. I collected all the fruit and it took me 36 days and about 18-ish real time hours.

This game controls totally left-handed with the Wii U tablet and with the right hand manning the stylus. Granted, plaything through the whole thing in one sitting did a bit of a number on my wrist, but I'm just gonna hope that feels better by morning XP. I'm not sure I like it better than the Gamecube controls, but I like it better than the Wiimote+numchuk controls. The only thing you can't do is direct your hoard in a direction like you can with the C-stick in the Gamecube games. Although you DO have a dodge roll you can get and activate with left and right on the D-pad which is pretty freaking sweet. Using the stylus to aim isn't an exact science, at least if you wanna play with the TV + tablet instead of just the tablet, but you get used to it pretty quick.

The graphics are BEAUTIFUL. This is one of my favorite looking games of last (this?) generation. All of the landscapes are beautifully detailed with tons of graphical detail and vibrant colors. The monsters look fantastic, and the really big ones are always a joy to even see just because of how oddball they are and fluidly they move. The level design is proper quality as well, as it always encourages you to inspect all of your surroundings to find dat fruit. Three main party members as well as a "Go To" feature on your map allows for some serious multi-tasking if you're up for it, and there are some decidedly more fiendishly hidden fruit that will require tactical use of all three members each wielding Pikmin of their own.

The combat is Pikmin as usual, more or less, but the world bosses are GREAT. One of my favorite parts of the game. This is the best the Pikmin themselves have ever been balanced, in my opinion. The two new types, rock and flying, replace the old types of purple and white, and have fantastic utility to both of them in that the flying can handle flying enemies easier, and rocks don't cling to things but do damage on impact as well as breaking enemy carapaces. Add in the exploration utility of things like the normal 3 (and yellows which are good at digging now and not nearly as useless as they used to be), and this is definitely one of the best designed games in the series.

Verdict: Highly recommended. A lot of care and detail went into this game, and it shows. It's a great adventure you can get through in a day or two, but it's a damn fun and memorable one. Definitely worth a try if you liked either of the other games even a little

I played the entire game with button controls and it worked great, Curious to try stylus controls sometime though.

I'm curious that you thought yellow were the most useless before though. If anything, in Pikmin 1 they were by far the most useful. Being able to throw them further and being able to take out big enemies and large walls in seconds using bomb rocks relegated red and blue pikmin to only being useful when water or fire was around really.

In Pikmin 2, the further throwing was still useful, and they areguably had the most useful immunity - whereas blue pikmin set on fire could be put out, and red pikmin drowing could be whistled to shore, and any colour pikmin poisoned could be snapped out of it and pulled to fresh air, there is nothing you could do against electricity without yellows as it instantly killed enemies - it was literally the most dangerous hazard in the game. Sure, white and purple pikmin were more overpowered in that one, but they were mroe limited too.

If anything, Blue pikmin are the least useful overall, but definitely the most essential.

Kuruwin wrote:What...you spent 18 hours straight playing Pikmin 3? I did get the game myself just recently and i probably will try to beat before the end of the year. I just have to get couple of more essential Wii U games out of the way first.

Honestly, I thought I played through it all in one sitting from yesterday morning to yesterday evening, but my in game clock sort of says that's impossible, so I guess I just forgot that I started it the previous night and beat it over two sittings ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

alienjesus wrote:I played the entire game with button controls and it worked great, Curious to try stylus controls sometime though.

I thought there were button controls! I could just never figure out how to activate them ;_;

I identify everyone via avatar, so if you change your avatar, I genuinely might completely forget who you are. -- Me